London Design Festival preview – highlights outside the LDF districts

The all-pervasive nature of the London Design Festival means that there are plenty of highlights to be found outside the six design districts.

Most notable – and hailed by the LDF as a Landmark Project – is architect John Pawson’s Perspectives installation at St Paul’s Cathedral.

John Pawson

In collaboration with Swarowski, Pawson has installed a huge lens at the bottom of the cathedral’s Geometric Staircase and a huge mirror at the top. This creates a composite image of the view up the tower which Pawson says allows viewers ‘to see beyond the level of the naked eye’.

The Finnish Institute in London, the brains behind last year’s superb restaurant pop-up Hel Yes! are this year bringing the Reddress project to London. Designed by Aamu Song, Reddress is, as the name suggests, a huge red dress, which will spread out along the floor of Bethnal Green’s York Hall and host a series of events, lectures and concerts.

Reddress

Although Neville Brody’s mooted plans for an Anti-Design Museum at the Shad Thames Design Museum haven’t come to pass this year, the Museum will be hosting a Friday late ball on 23 September, with live music and access to exhibitions including the Kenneth Grange blockbuster.

Moving more centrally, the Designjunction show, which made its debut in Milan this year, is being held at the Victoria House Basement on Southampton Row. Curtated by Micahel Sodeau it will feature exhibitors including Deadgood and Jake Dyson. The (sadly invite-only) Pecha Kucha on Friday night, featuring Luke Pearson, Dominic Wilcox and others, is sure to be an LDF highlight.

The Designjunction Bar

And completing the sweep from east to west, we come to Tom Dixon’s Dock HQ, in Westbourne Grove. This will be playing host to Print Club London’s gallery and studio, with James Joyce, Anthony Burrill and Pure Evil on hand to help with the printing, while Dixon himself will be launching products including the new Bulb and Etch lights.

The Dock terrace will boast Aston Martin cars, fold-up boats and other delights, while across the canal the White Building will be hosting to Studio Weave’s Floating Cinema and Marcel Wanders’s Mermaids project for Moooi.